Vice-Chancellor's Diversity Awards

Awards were made to individuals and projects or initiatives in five categories:

• Champion or Role Model – Student: Recognises students at all level who have inspired others through their actions and commitment to equality and diversity.
• Champion or Role Model – Staff: Recognises staff in any role and at any level of the institution who have demonstrated leadership on equality and diversity and influenced change within their department, faculty or college or the wider University.
• Inclusive culture: Recognises work to create a working, research or learning environment which values difference and in which everyone feels that they belong and can thrive.
• Diversifying participation: Recognises work to increase the participation of under-represented groups, for example in the workforce or student body, or to extend the reach of the University’s work to new audiences, including through outreach and public engagement.
• Promoting awareness: Recognises work to raise awareness and promote understanding of equality and diversity issues among the University community or work to influence public perceptions of the University as an institution committed to equality and diversity.

The awards were open to any current student or member of staff from any part of the collegiate University.

The awards were intended to recognise the work of individuals and groups to promote equality and diversity at the University. Activities could be undertaken in a voluntary capacity or take place outside of the University’s premises but their impact had to be on the University’s policy, practice or reputation.

For the purposes of the awards, the definition of diversity was not limited to the protected characteristics under the Equality Act: other characteristics, such as socio-economic diversity, were also recognised.

Nominations in the role model or champion category were assessed purely on the strength of the supporting statement made in the nominations form.

Nominations in the project categories were assessed against the extent to which they demonstrate:

• Relevance - What issues(s) did the initiative seek to address and what evidence was there to indicate that action was required?
• Reach - How many people benefitted from and/or engaged with the initiative, either directly or indirectly?
• Impact - What has the initiative achieved and how will this impact be sustained?

Judging took place in two phases:

• An advisory panel, chaired by the Head of Equality and Diversity, and comprising equality and diversity professionals from each of the four academic divisions and GLAM assessed all applications against the criteria and draw up a long-list.
• A judging panel, chaired by a Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and comprising senior academics and representatives of Oxford SU and the University’s staff networks, selected the final short-list and category winners.